Distributors Fear Shortage of ‘Batman’ Videos

Will there be enough copies of “Batman” for all those eager customers when it makes its home video bow on Wednesday?

Maybe not.

Shades of “E.T.,” some industry executives are lamenting. They’re fearing that what happened with MCA’s “E.T.” last fall--drastic shortages due to underestimated demand--may be repeated with Warner Video’s “Batman.”

Speculation about shortages surfaced not long after the Oct. 12 ordering deadline, when many distributors reported being told by Warner that their orders would be cut anywhere from 5% to 40%. Major retailers such as Tower Video, who get their supply directly from Warner, apparently will get their full orders, however.

Warner won’t reveal the number of orders it received, but various industry estimates place the figure somewhere between 13 million and 16 million cassettes. MCA shipped 15 million copies of the all-time sales champ, “E.T.”

For the consumer, Warner’s cutback means that some video retailers--particularly the small stores that get their allotments from distributors--may not have enough copies of “Batman” to satisfy the demand. It also may mean that mass merchants such as K mart and Target won’t be able to get reorders quickly if “Batman” sells out right away.

“I won’t be able to satisfy all my customers,” said John Taylor, president of Ingram Video, a major distribution firm that supplies many stores. “If there’s a big demand, they may not have enough copies.”

But Warner Video spokesman Mike Finnegan said that such talk about shortages is nonsense. “There will be plenty of copies of ‘Batman’ to go around,” he insisted.

There are several theories as to why Warner would not fill all the orders. The company declined to discuss its decision.

“It’s possible they’re cutting back to avoid a glut,” said Ron Castell, an executive with the national Blockbuster chain. “There’s a feeling that stores padded their orders, remembering what happened last year when there weren’t enough copies of ‘E.T.’ to go around. So these cutbacks would simply cut away the padding.

“If there was heavy over-ordering, Warner would get a lot of returns, which they don’t want. By cutting back on the orders now, Warner could avoid those returns.”

According to another theory, Warner underestimated the demand and can’t duplicate enough copies to meet the orders by the release date.

“This is a busy time of year at the duplicating plants,” Taylor said. “If Warner wanted more copies of ‘Batman’ duplicated, it would be hard to find someone to fill the order, since the plants are busy with other orders. They may not be able to fill some of these orders until sometime in December.”

Precise ordering, so there’s neither a glut nor a shortage of cassettes, is difficult for a video company when it comes to blockbuster films.

“There was no previous history on how to order titles that are in such demand,” said Tower Video executive John Thrasher, defending both MCA and Warner. “In May of last year, MCA thought 5-6 million copies of ‘E.T’ would be enough. There had never been another title like it, so they didn’t know they were off by many millions when they made their first duplication order. They tried to catch up, but it was too late.”

The problem, he said, is that if the companies don’t satisfy consumer demand quickly, they may not get a second chance.

“When ‘E.T’ came out, we could have sold double what we did, but we didn’t have enough copies,” Thrasher said. “Those customers who left empty-handed may have gone on to some other gift. When people are buying gifts, they want to buy right away. Also, sales drop after the gift-buying season. Having a big stock on a title like ‘E.T’ after Christmas isn’t as important.”

When MCA finally caught up with the demand, it was too late, Thrasher said. “They say they’ve shipped 15 million copies of ‘E.T.,’ but stores didn’t sell that many. Consumers may have bought 11-12 million. There are many copies of ‘E.T’ still around, in MCA warehouses or on store shelves. I know MCA is not accepting any returns on ‘E.T.’ ”

Will “Batman” duplicate the “E.T” shortage fiasco or will the Warner cutbacks put supply in tune with demand?

“We’ll know in the first two weeks after it’s released,” Taylor said. “If it’s selling out and we can’t get more copies right away, we all lose out.”